Ether Gate is 90 gems

[Gono]

why is ether gate 90 astral pearls? Like cmon man I dont wanna pay 10 less gems then wish for 15 goofballs and a 6 path mage, if it were in smaller denominations then paying 6 gems per one of those moonblade bois might actually be okay in some situations but as it stands the spell is big sad :(

[jojeck]

I'd say that the spell is well worth the pearls for some nations and in some circumstances. Look at the stats, equipment and special abilities on those 15 troops alone and imagine you use them under ideal circumstances where ordinary troops can't go. Note those stats and damage get boosted by fighting in magic scales (and lessened in drain) and they are easy to buff with other mages in a big battle due to the HP density. Add more protections (mass prot, legions of steel, giant strength, weapons of sharpness, resistances, mass regeneration ... ) and you have super troops that only cost about 4 pearls each. That mage is easily worth the remaining 30 pearls if you use him properly, he can teleport, cast soul vortex and invulnerability (with only a skull staff).

For a nation that has no astral on its national mages but the pretender has 4 (commonly used for magic weapons on a rainbow bless) then that mage can help a lot with forging and site searching and the initial 90 pearls can be partly alchemised if you are sufficiently needy for that boost in capability.

[Dast]

I believe Ether gate is at a much easier point to reach in research that Wish.

[disnegativ]

The 15 goofballs are seriously good troops - with MOONBLADES!! - and very expensive. Mage (say 30 gems) + troops (say 4 per unit) in a package without reduced price often feel overpriced. I certainly would consider summoning them separately at prices that sums up to 90 for the package, but never found myself summoning the package.

[Perro Grande]

The spell is only research 6 when wish is research 9.....

[Stormworm]

Ether Gate becomes relevant much earlier on in the game than Wish. One cast of Ether Gate is sometimes enough to swing a war in your favor since the troops and the commander you get are some top tier troops imo.

[HpMunchcraft]

Agreed, I think all the “canned army” spells are priced additively, but should get a bundle discount.

Like bruh none of that stuff will give you the advantage of similarly-priced globals.

[DasaKamov]

Also, depending on the era, that "6 path mage" is likely going to be more powerful than any of the national mages available to you, while also being very combat capable to boot.

[onard2]

Originally posted by HpMunchcraft:

Agreed, I think all the “canned army” spells are priced additively, but should get a bundle discount.

Like bruh none of that stuff will give you the advantage of similarly-priced globals.

Thing is, there can be only one of each global in play. And if somebody else casts that global first, you need to overpower it. And your enemies will know you have that global up. And you need to keep the mage that casted the global alive. And there's a total limit of how many globals can be up per game, point.

Ether Gate doesn't care about any of that, if you've got the pearls and a mage, you can cast it as many times as you want when you want, no extra strings attached.

Originally posted by DasaKamov:

Also, depending on the era, that "6 path mage" is likely going to be more powerful than any of the national mages available to you, while also being very combat capable to boot.

Yeah, a 6 path mage is very good by itself and better than any recruitable non-cap mages.

And even if you can recruit better mages at your cap (and many nations can't), said cap mages are still limited by taking turns (often only 1 per 2 turns) so Ether Gate allows you to get a significant bit of extra power for your magic corps.

[Dast]

Maybe the fact that it increases the magic scale as well is what you get instead of a "bundle discount". You also save mage-turns over some hypothetical where you can summon the component units separately for gems that add to 90.

[Legowarrior]

Originally posted by Dast:

Maybe the fact that it increases the magic scale as well is what you get instead of a "bundle discount". You also save mage-turns over some hypothetical where you can summon the component units separately for gems that add to 90.

How long does that magic Scale boost last? I'm wondering how useful it is, since to take advantage of it, your native domain must be less than 3, but to take advantage of Ether Gate, you want to fight in regions with Magic 3.

[DasaKamov]

Originally posted by Legowarrior:

How long does that magic Scale boost last?

All Scale alterations are permanent until something else (be it random events, other spells or special units) changes the Scale once again.

Even if you take Magic 3 during Pretender creation, it takes time for your Dominion's scale to influence the provinces. Ether Gate instantly increases the Magic scale by one as soon as it is cast, so it can be useful to supercharge the scale in your favor.

[Legowarrior]

That seems like a really niche use. 'super charge's your domain is putting it a bit strongly.

Wouldn't most provinces, by the time of casting, be pretty strong learning one way or another already? Either it has my domain, or it has my opponents domain.

[DasaKamov]

Originally posted by Legowarrior:

That seems like a really niche use.

Well, you're (hopefully) not casting Ether Gate *just* for the Magic Scale boost. You're casting it for the scale boost + the 15 tanky monsters + powerful mage.

EDIT: All Ether Warriors have Magic Power 1. That means for each point of Magic Scale, their Attack, Defense and Strength increase by 1. Even if the province you cast the spell in is under enemy Dominion with neutral or Drain scales, casting Ether Gate will boost your Warriors and Lord's stats by that much.

[Perro Grande]

Originally posted by DasaKamov:

Originally posted by Legowarrior:

How long does that magic Scale boost last?

All Scale alterations are permanent until something else (be it random events, other spells or special units) changes the Scale once again.

Even if you take Magic 3 during Pretender creation, it takes time for your Dominion's scale to influence the provinces. Ether Gate instantly increases the Magic scale by one as soon as it is cast, so it can be useful to supercharge the scale in your favor.

Pretty sure scale changes are not permanent.

from the manual:

Dominion scales When you create your pretender, the dominion scales you choose will spread with
your dominion. This does not all occur at once – if you have Order 3, provinces with low friendly
dominion may only gain Order 1 or 2. Over time, they will reflect your chosen scales. Each turn a
province has your dominion in it there will be a small chance for each scale to tip one step towards your
chosen dominion. The chance for this to happen is (5% multiplied by the dominion level in the
province) plus (10% multiplied by the difference between the actual scale and your nation's scale).
102
Thus, a big difference between your scales and the scales in a province makes the provincial scales react
more quickly. Once the difference has become small, the chance of tipping the scales is reduced.
Likewise, having a strong dominion in a province makes the provincial scales change faster (but this is
only half as important as the difference in scales is).

[Perro Grande]

Originally posted by HpMunchcraft:

Agreed, I think all the “canned army” spells are priced additively, but should get a bundle discount.

Like bruh none of that stuff will give you the advantage of similarly-priced globals.

What is a similar global? Wraith from God is the only one I can think of and it it an 8 path spell instead of a 5 path spell. Either gate can be cast natively by some nations, Wraith of god requires booster items or a pretender made specifically for it.